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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Cupcake bar...

For the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day, Jeff and I wanted to take the stressful edge off and hopefully put a smile on his co-workers faces by giving them a cupcake bar. I have it set up now to give them a choice between two cupcakes, two frostings and a variety of fun toppings!

I made two types of cupcakes today - the first I prepared was a batch of White Cupcakes and the second were these One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes.

I wanted to get the White Cupcakes going first because they needed a fair amount of work to get them going. The White Cupcakes have a couple key features that ensure their success. First is the use of cake flour - this has less protein and gluten than an all-purpose... which results in a cupcake that is light and fluffy with a fine crumb. They are mainly considered "white" because there are no egg yolks used - however, egg whites are still used. Rather than just tossing the whites into the mix as-is, they are first whipped to a stiff and glossy consistency. This adds to their lovely texture, but also makes for more dishes and work!

Now, those chocolate cupcakes on the other hand, were a snap to prepare. As the title says, you only need to use a single bowl to make them! I did use my mixer because it was already out, but you could certainly haul out your trusty wooden spoon and go to town. The chocolate in these comes in the form of smooth Dutch-process cocoa powder, which gives them a striking dark appearance. The first thing I noticed was how different the batter was from the previous cupcake - instead of having a thick, fluffy texture, this batter is thinner and more fluid. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out at first because I like chocolate cupcakes to have melted chocolate mixed in, but when I gave the batter a quick taste, my concerns drifted away as I found myself scouring the drawer to find a clean spoon for another taste. While not quite as decadent using the cocoa powder, we both thought they were more than acceptable and chocolate-y enough.

So now that we had two cupcakes, we needed some frosting to top them off. In the interest of choice, I prepared a Quick Vanilla Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Frosting that we'll put in their own bowls so they can choose their own icing, or even spread on both!

The vanilla is just your basic butter, shortening and confectioners' sugar buttercream that is flavored with vanilla and smoothed out with milk. I needed something that could stand up to being made ahead of time and travel well, but also appeal to different tastes. This does land in the quite sweet department as frostings go, however I've also found it's what a lot of people prefer since it reminds them of birthday cake frosting. I do enjoy and sometimes prefer a Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream, but this type suited our need well.

The chocolate cupcakes were not as rich as mentioned, but the chocolate frosting I made on the other hand, was in-your-face decadent. It was a little more involved with two forms of chocolate used, but it was definitely worth the time and effort needed. After melting half a pound of bittersweet chocolate, we needed it to cool down to room temperature before using it... which gave us plenty of time to stir together boiling water and a few tablespoons of Dutch-process cocoa powder to let it bloom and develop. When the ingredients were ready, butter was beaten with just a bit of confectioners' sugar - when smooth, the melted chocolate was mixed in first and allowed to swirl around the bowl until completely combined. The cocoa mixture was then beaten in to finish off this shiny frosting with a luxurious feel.

We could have stopped there, but why? Since they were going to be frosting the cupcakes themselves, we thought we would step it up and give them a choice of fun toppings too!

I'll be sending in bowls of rainbow sprinkles, chopped peanuts, chopped M&Ms and crushed Oreo cookies. One cupcake bar ready to go - I hope this brings giant smiles to the faces of his co-workers!

You have the most beautiful pictures of your creations! I love this blog and check it all the time to see what wonderful things your comming up with...thank you for sharing your talents with us strangers.